Put a baby shark into a 16X24 inch aquarium and that shark, in time, will grow to be 10-12 inches at adulthood. Put that same baby shark into the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean and it will grow 8-10 feet at adulthood. What causes the difference in growth? Limitations!
The aquarium shark’s growth was extremely limited by several conditions: his perception of space and environment, his food, his vision, and his mind’s understanding of who he was. In his aquarium this shark swam or floated in chemically altered water. He ate processed food and was extremely curtailed in exercise. His vision didn’t include a large swimming pool and certainly not an ocean to swim in.
The ocean shark on the other hand was limitless in his explorations. He could range from the shallows of Prince William Sound in Alaska to the 32,000 foot depths of the Mariana Trench in the Philippine Sea. His food intake depended on his imagination and prowess. He was not curtailed by man’s limitations. Therefore he grew to enormous proportions.
Like the ocean shark we too are to be boundless in our spiritual growth, motivated and directed by the Holy Spirit.
“…saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’, to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They shall feed along the ways, on all the bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind no sun shall strike them down, for he who has put on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.”
Isaiah 49:9-10 (NRSV)
By Gordon Kler